3rd Grade Weekly Newsletter
Each newsletter describes what your child has been learning in school, what they will be learning the following week, and homework assignments your child will be receiving.
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Each newsletter describes what your child has been learning in school, what they will be learning the following week, and homework assignments your child will be receiving.
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A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
--2/3 teachers This week - Reading – This week in reading we finished our unit on asking questions and wondering while reading. Students also worked to make inferences about Irene, the main character in Brave Irene, who faces great challenges during the story. We learned a lot about her as we read about how she rose to the occasion and faced hardships. Students worked to record questions and wonderings about their own reading during independent reading time. Vocabulary – We learned the words slog, commence, and flabbergasted which came from the book Mailing May. Writing – This week in writing we started a new unit on opinion writing. Students heard many different examples, such as "Schools should start later," "Schools should start early," "Rats are the best pets," and "Dogs are the best pets." We talked about how it is important to understand the audience for an opinion piece as well as the purpose. Students are having fun writing their own opinion pieces on self-selected topics. Math – This week in math students continued to explore area by working with tetrominoes. We explored the relationship between the area of squares, rectangles, and triangles. As students explore area, they are getting exposure to the foundation of multiplication which we will begin soon. Next week - Reading – Next week we will teach a short mini-unit on test taking strategies. Writing – Next week we will continue opinion writing as well as some skills lessons focused on verbs. Math – Next week we will continue to explore area. Homework - Tuesday: math page 32 Wednesday: math page 33 Thursday: math page 34
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A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
--2/3 teachers This week - Reading – This week in reading students continued to practice the strategy of asking questions before, during, and after reading. We used the book Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell to practice. Students also are working to discuss their questions and answers with partners, referring to the text to support their thinking. While students are asking questions, they should also be visualizing and inferring about characters. Good readers do all of these strategies while reading when they are helpful in understanding the book. Vocabulary – This week we learned the words shuffle, swarm, urgent, motion, prowl, and "blow your top." These words come from the book A Day's Work. Writing – This week in writing students used the notes they had taken last week on the two articles to help answer research questions about going on safari in Africa. Students worked to use evidence from the task and to write in complete sentences. Students then drafted a narrative about going on safari in Africa. Students needed to apply all they have learned about personal narrative and use the information from the articles we read to create a narrative about going on safari in Africa. We also started our next unit on opinion writing. Math – In math we continued our new unit on perimeter, angles, and area. Students practiced finding the perimeters of several different shapes and objects. Students must use their skills in addition to determine perimeter of objects. Students also worked on a web based activity provided by our math curriculum called Turtle Pond. On Turtle Pond students help a turtle get to food by using mathematical knowledge of lengths and angles. Next week - Reading – Next week we will continue to practice asking questions to help us understand our reading better. Writing - Next week we will continue to work opinion writing. Math – Next week we will begin to explore area. Homework: Monday: math page 23 Tuesday: math page 27 A few dates to remember as we look forward to next week.
--2/3 teachers This week: Reading – This week in reading we continued to practice the reading strategy of asking questions or wondering while reading. We used the book A Day's Work by Eve Bunting to practice. Students ask questions about a story only when they can understand what they are reading. It is important that the questions relate to the main action or ideas of the story. It is not helpful to ask questions about minor details. When asking questions, reader seek out the answers. Sometimes the answers are found in the text and sometimes they are not. However, the act of asking questions and seeking answers deepens a reader's comprehension. Vocabulary – This week we learned the words belongings, faint, cling, roam, joyful, and sorrowful from the book The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses. Writing – This week in writing we started our first performance task. These are week long activities designed to prepare students for the fourth grade language arts test during which they will have to read selections and then write to a prompt in which they must reference the texts. We will work through a narrative piece with the students, reading two articles together and then drafting and writing to a prompt with guidance. These articles are all about going on safari in Africa. Students will use the information they learn in the articles to use their imagination to write a narrative piece about going on safari themselves. Math – This week in math students focused on drawing representations for comparison and missing part problems. Traditionally, these are considered subtraction problems. However, if you really understand the relationships between the numbers you can add up from the smaller amount to the larger amount to find the difference and this is usually more comfortable for students. Students are using number lines to represent these actions and find these solutions. We also began our new unit on perimeter, angles, and area. We began this week by looking at perimeter. We talked about units of measure: inches, centimeters, feet, yards, and meters. Students practiced finding the perimeters of several different shapes and objects. Next week: Reading – Next week we will continue to practice the strategy of wondering and asking questions while reading. Writing – Next week we will complete the performance task of a narrative about safari in Africa. We will then begin a unit on opinion writing. Math – Next week we will continue to explore area. Homework: Monday: math page 11 Tuesday: math pages 15-16 Wednesday: math page 17 Thursday: math page 21 |